MakeOHI/O Hackathon Winners and Recap
The annual MakeOHI/O hardware hackathon at The Ohio State University continues to earn its place as a growing venue for showcasing spontaneous student innovation. Over 24 sleepless hours, from March 4 to 5 at Knowlton Hall on campus, students designed tech ideas, working as teams to develop and then present their creations.
Watch a short video recap of the event here.
Find pictures from the event here.
"This year at MakeOHI/O we had a lot more engagement with the community," organizer J. Martin Troth said. "We've actually grown a lot over last year, from about 125 to about 150 people this year."
Fellow organizer Jeff Hensal said planning and strategy improved this year as well, especially with help from sponsors like Bosch providing hardware for participants.
The event is part of the parent group OHI/O, which includes the upcoming HighSchool I/O and ShowOHI/O, all geared toward fostering a growing tech culture at Ohio State and beyond.
Corporations like Harris also help support the event, along with Battelle, Amazon Web Services, Bimba and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ohio State.
Hensal said his favorite project from among the winners was "The Coolest Cooler."
"It has its own audio system built in. It has its own portable power, so no extension cord necessary. It has its own jumper cables," he said. "You can grab this thing out of your trunk and jump start your car directly from your cooler. To me, that was just really impressive and a top-notch project."
Another standout was the Skittle sorter robot, which spits out color-coded candy.
Hensal said a new winning category this year was the Best Clutch, an award for the best unfinished project. Perhaps a team comes up with a great idea and design, he said, but time or other issues prevent it from coming together in 24 hours.
"We have a chance to see students work with one another, solve problems, work on teams," she said. "It's better than an interview. I hope more coporations sponsor these events going forward."
ECE alumni, Gus Fragasse and Eric Bauer, served as judges this year after years spent as organizers for MakeOHI/O (when it was called Makeathon).
Fragasse said it was interesting to come back and experience the event from a different perspective.
"Judging has kind of evolved from a chaotic state to very well run," Bauer said.
This year's winning teams:
Top Tier Winners
Team: Personal Space Invaders, space monitor. Team members won a Makey Makey Kit
Team: Team 0.041, 3D modeling from 2D images. Members won a BeagleBone Black.
Additional Winners
Best Technical Achievement
Team: SHOYU, a shaker shooter. Team members won a BeagleBone Green
Best Art Form and Function
Team: The Coolest Cooler, with speakers and so much more. Winners earned an EZ Cal Digital Caliper
Most Socially Responsible
Team: Grow Away, automated greenhouse. Winners earned an LuminAID Solar Lantern
Battelle Best Electro-Mechanical Project
Team: Electric Kettle, home automation system. Members won a robotic arm edge.
Harris Best Communication Project
Team: ShARD, Shard AR Display. Members won a Logitech K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard.
Special Prize: Best Sprint
Team: WIE and CSE, The Skittle Sorter won a Cypress PSOC Kit
Special Prize: Best Clutch
Team: The Little Robot that Might, line driving automated car. Winners earned an INNOVA 3320 Multimeter.
